From Matthau to Soderbergh: Ceremony Star Michael Angarano Talks Growing Up Onscreen

What makes Ceremony even more fascinating to me is that I also saw your performance in Homework, during Sundance.

Oh, you did? I think that's such a great movie. I'm so proud to be a part of that.

What makes Homework an interesting pairing with Ceremony is that Homework, which I technically saw first, is your first effective step beyond teenage characters. You play this older artist acting as mentor and friend to young Freddie Highmore.

I think a huge influence to Gavin, the director of Homework, was John Cassavetes -- movies that capture a real naturalness, a real candidness to their characters. That's kind of what I was excited about with that character. He's an artist coming into his own at this time in his life where his inner turmoil is the fact that he's realizing himself and realizing that his own inherent potential, that he's becoming successful at and starting to be able to harness, he could also use to manipulate and do wrong, and seduce. So it's not a teenage problem; this is a problem that young adults have. People who are really starting to flourish as artists and adults, it's their first glimpse into the rest of their lives, I guess you could say. That's what I saw with Homework. You know, I only worked 8 days out of 22 days but for me it was a very seamless experience. It also captured a time in my life where I think I'll look back on with fondness and maybe a tinge of embarrassment.

Significant moments in your life end up documented on film, in a way?

Yeah, especially since I've been acting since I was so young. It's like basically watching a very well-kept home video.

This is definitely an interesting moment to be watching your career, considering that I've also seen Red State.

Oh, cool! Oh my God.

I know, I've somehow managed to see all of your recent work in the last few months. But Red State's roadshow is underway and apparently doing well.

Right.

What do you make of Kevin Smith's distribution model, now that we've seen the early success of the Red State tour?

You know, I think the fact that he's gotten so much publicity for the fact that he's doing this business model is the real ingenious thing about Kevin Smith. The business model makes complete sense with the film, I think it's the perfect movie to do it with -- I don't think he would have been able to do it with Zack and Miri Make a Porno or Clerks 2. But the fact that it's Red State and it's a psychological horror movie that's really interesting and captures a zeitgeist of ideas and thought, a commentary on culture -- it's the perfect movie to do it with. I think he's extremely smart, because the man has not spent a dollar on publicity and yet everybody knows about it. So that in itself is pretty interesting.

Kevin cast you almost immediately in his next and final film, Hit Somebody. Have you begun any work on that yet?

No, I don't think he's finished the script yet.

Meanwhile, you've got Steven Soderbergh's Haywire coming up. What's the extent of your involvement in the story?

Gina Carano plays a black ops agent who gets betrayed by her own company. More of the story is her on the run, basically, and I play a character who helps her out along the way. I'm very excited to see that film -- there are so many amazing actors and he's one of the most talented filmmakers of any generation, so it's going to be interesting.

The cast is quite impressive -- did you get to interact with many of them in your scenes?

Not in the actual film. My main interaction in the film is with Gina Carano, who's the star of the film and has never acted before in her life. I think this movie's going to be filled with little cameos and vignettes with these actors, Gina is the one who interacts with everybody.

Bringing this full circle, let's go back to your very first credit: Playing "David Duchovny's son" on an episode of Saturday Night Live.

Yeah!

What do you remember of that? You're young, but you've been acting for years; how do you look back on credits like that from so long ago?

It's pretty fascinating, actually. I find myself to be very lucky to have had the opportunities that I've had, but I owe it all to my family. They've only been unconditionally supportive. Sometimes, cosmically, things happen -- and happen for you, in a weird way. But I think, you know, it's kind of weird. [Laughs] I don't remember a lot about it. It's like asking somebody if they remember a memory. I remember not knowing who David Duchovny was. I think I was actually cut from the actual show but I was credited anyway. I do remember the very first movie I ever did; it was a movie called I'm Not Rappaport, with Walter Matthau, and the very first scene in a movie I had was with Walter Matthau.

Is that a vivid memory?

It's a very vivid memory, because that was the first movie I worked on and it was kind of a big deal. I was six.

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